


A Challenge: Three Stones Fixit

by FireflyBanner



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-02-26 09:24:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13232814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflyBanner/pseuds/FireflyBanner
Summary: You know, with the Mind, Time, and Soul stones here on Earth, *someone* should write a "soul/memories sent back in time" story. A Fix-it.





	1. Chapter 1

I love time travel fixits - and this canon!universe already has the means to do so.

Send Tony from immediately post-Siberia or post-Ultron, using just the Time and Mind stones, or use the Soul stone as well in the last moments before Thanos wins. If you send him post-Siberia, Tony knows that Howard has the Super Soldier formula (although not perfected; the Russian Super Soldier Corps was uncontrollably violent. Perhaps a partial dose would give slower results but less psychosis?) 

In the movies, Stark is far more self-centered and prideful than in the comics. The Ultron disaster was pivotal in making him less arrogant.

I'd like a Tony Stark sent back to his younger body just after (or right before) his parents' murders. If he arrives before their deaths, then he would need to figure out how to protect them from the Soldier and other assassination attempts. Recruit/steal the Soldier? How would he convince Howard to change Stark Industries goals from USA defense to planetary defense? Tell his parents everything? Or cash in his trust fund and start a new corporation from scratch? 

I'd enjoy Tony being delighted at how *good* his younger body feels.

With those three stones, you could send JARVIS, although Tony would have to design and build a server farm to house him. (*I* am sure that JARVIS was sapient, and thus ensouled.) 

Pull out all the stops and send Bruce Banner as well. What would happen to Hulk, then? Bruce Banner, sent back from after Thor: Ragnarok, would be able to add a lot of galactic politics to the project. 

Hooking him up with a teenage Pepper is revolting; the man is in his late forties, no matter how young his body.

Using all three stones, I don't see why you couldn't send Pepper back twice, putting her in the bodies of people who died in some way that does minimal damage to the body. Maybe an electrical accident or some sort of quick poison. He could certainly use two of her in his plan to change the future. 

Tony managed to turn Stark Industries from an important US defense contractor (which means extremely limited presence outside the continental US) into an international tech giant in the years between Iron Man 1 and IM3. Given a twenty-year lead and foreknowledge, he could make Earth a much harder target. Given two decades worth of more sophistication, he could handle Stane, Killian, Ivan Vanko, and Pym much better as well. He knows where Rogers is frozen; grab the Captain before he becomes embittered by modern politics. Make Rogers study recent history and international relations.

Recruit Cho, Hanson, and Yinson while they are still students, possibly by hiring their parents? "Stark Medical" has a nice ring to it.

Thor's arrival went about as well as possible, but Loki's could have been played very differently.

I'd love some group sex, Tony, Bruce, and both Peppers. They could form a family, united in a shared goal. They could adopt a few characters that canon Marvel screwed over (Donnie Gill comes to mind.)


	2. The Super Soldier Serum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard's Super Soldier serum could have a major impact.  
> (Either part of the Three Stones challenge or as its own short story.) What if the Russians, Howard, and Erskine simply overlooked one major aspect of human personality?

Would Tony be able to tempt Dr. Banner to work on correcting the Super Soldier Serum that Howard had produced? It's pretty obvious that the stuff wasn't ready for human trials yet; still I don't know how they would approach the problem of the mental effects displayed by the Russian Corps. Perhaps Erskine was right, and it ultimately comes down to the inherent qualities of the people involved. Perhaps, instead of looking for personalities who demonstrated a deep (and violent) loyalty to a political ideal, they should have chosen subjects who were strongly embedded in their community; a member of a close family who had a lot of friends? 

It occurs to me that Barnes started out as a popular teammate and a deeply loved friend. Rogers has always shared a deep loyalty with Bucky; being rescued (at great personal risk) and immediately immersed in a strongly supportive environment could have made all the difference in the mental health of the Soldier. Working on the assumption that the extreme violence demonstrated by the Russian Corps was an effect of Howard's Serum, then I could deduce that the treatment affects the brain as well as the body. Since our hardware IS our software, and our software is our hardware, then what is written on this (upgraded? mutated?) modified grey matter is very much open to being reprogrammed. It's reasonable to presume that the early influences could have permanent effects on this new mind. The first language that a toddler learns is functionally permanent for most cases after all, and no one can deny that humans are social creatures. We *need* other people. 

Love, demonstrated affection, proven loyalty would be major positive impressions for a new mind. Bucky was a soldier before he received the Serum and then he was conditioned as a soldier for months after Rogers rescued him. Perhaps he maintained that attitude and discipline through all the torture inflicted on him by Hydra. They wouldn't have wanted to damage that; it wouldn't have occurred to them to try.

The Russian Super Soldiers were probably treated more as test animals. The lab coats and the uniforms around them would not have addressed emotional needs or socialization. As the Russian Corps grew stronger, perhaps they were simply returning scientific neutrality with distrust, starting a cycle of escalating violence between the Soldiers and their guards.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Other possible plot points.

Movie canon makes it plain that Tony wanted Peter Parker out of the mask, doing something productive and safe. I'm sure that this would carry through to any young person.

Clint Barton was a mercenary, (it was implied that he was a killer-for-hire) before SHIELD recruited him. If you want him in the story, perhaps he'd be Tony's bodyguard? Although he comes with some extremely dangerous peripheral problems, particularly his brother. I don't remember how he lost his hearing.

Natasha Romanoff was an artist at manipulating people. If *Tony* could be the one who just happened to be there when she decided to come in from the cold, then she could be an amazingly useful tool. That said, honeypot manipulations and deep penetration moles are just not Tony's style. I think we should keep her far away from us, but pairing her up with Clint (again) and using them as security for the rapidly-growing Stark International could be amazingly effective. 

Out of everyone, Vision is the character that I can't see any feasible way to rescue. To the best of my knowledge, he needs the Mind Stone to survive, and it's being held by Thanos until Loki is sent to Earth. (I just had this visual of Loki landing next to the Tesseract, only to appear in a trap that yanks the Scepter away from him and breaks it to get the Mind Stone, while the Cradle and Thor wait Right There to build Vision.) Unfortunately, there were a Whole Lot of pretty random influences involved in Vision's creation, including Ultron. I just don't think the events could be replicated.


End file.
